


I Want You To Want Me (DEArtfest Day 12 - 5+1)

by Lallygo



Series: Lallygo's DEArtfest [5]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: 5+1 Things, DEArtfest, Gavin Reed Needs a Hug, I didn't have time to read this before posting so enjoy this shit, M/M, New Year's Eve, Pet Names, Snow, Soft Gavin Reed, Soft Upgraded Connor | RK900, Spin the Bottle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25229125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lallygo/pseuds/Lallygo
Summary: Gavin Reed was cold, lonely, and most noticeably pissed off. Two of those things were his fault - the roof in winter wasn’t exactly a hotspot for people. But the other one - the other one was not, and he made sure to remind himself of it every few seconds. He was pissed off at Nines, and for once, he had a reason to be.-Gavin thinks Nines is trying to start something. Nines doesn't even realise there's tension.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: Lallygo's DEArtfest [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1858606
Comments: 2
Kudos: 85





	I Want You To Want Me (DEArtfest Day 12 - 5+1)

**Author's Note:**

> mmm okay so i did not read through this before posting, have fun spotting my mistakes

Gavin Reed was cold, lonely, and most noticeably pissed off. Two of those things were his fault - the roof in winter wasn’t exactly a hotspot for people. But the other one - the other one was not, and he made sure to remind himself of it every few seconds. He was pissed off at Nines, and for once, he had a reason to be.

-

A few months ago, Gavin had been pretty angry in the precinct. It was a nice day, he had enough sleep, but it was just one of  _ those _ days. The ones where he felt like crap. He figured from the severity of some of these days, he should see a therapist, but on the other hand that would cost money that he could be spending on cat toys.

Gavin and Nines were searching desperately through a small supply closet for a specific item. Looking back on it from that cold rooftop, he couldn’t be bothered to remember what - only that it was fucking hard to find. He wasn’t claustrophobic, per se, but he was not taking well to the closet. Small, warm spaces were microwaves - cooking you slowly but surely. With people involved it was worse. Their breath, their greasy hands brushing against his own. It was hell on a  _ good _ day.

“Where the fuck is this thing?” he barked, accidentally knocking items off the shelves with his sleeves.

“We will find it eventually,” Nines sighed, grimace encroaching further onto his face as time went by. “I’m sure it is not far.”

“But it  _ might _ be,” Gavin retorted - petty as always. He didn’t care what other people thought of it, he always had to have the last laugh. He could feel his breathing speeding up every second he was in the closet. “Let’s just go, yeah? We can sort this shit out later or something.”

“It would be unwise to leave it any longer,” he growled, losing patience.

“Fuck being wise, I want to leave,” Gavin emphasised, beginning to scratch into his leg with his keys. At least the pain distracted him.

“What you  _ want _ is of no concern to me,” Nines said, raising his voice. “We ought to stay and find-”

“Fuck you!” he snapped, pushing Nines into a shelf.

The android responded quickly and effectively, pulling his hands behind his back and pinning him onto a busy countertop. “Unlike your colleagues, Detective, I am not afraid to use force to stop you,” he warned. His voice was now deafeningly quiet against his ear, more dangerous than ever. Gavin shivered. “So please -  _ calm down _ .”

Gavin held a whine back in his throat, feeling a thigh holding him in place. He let his arms relax, whatever tension he had releasing. He used a breathing exercise he had seen once to stay calm, adjusting himself on the table to get comfortable. It was awkward how arousing he found the aggressive version of Nines. Everything heated up - from his cheeks to, well, his pants.

All too soon, Nines let go, and Gavin spun around to meet his gaze. The ice-cold stare looked into his eyes for a moment, before looking down and raising an eyebrow.

He sucked in a harsh breath as he prepared to explain why he had a hard-on, but… Nines was leaning in. Coming closer. Gavin’s eyes fluttered a little, deciding whether or not to close and let the moment take him.

Nines reached past Gavin and picked up the object they had been looking for. “It looks like you found it, Detective. Well done,” he said in a level tone, apparently unaffected by the tension, and walked away.

Gavin just stood, staring. He brushed a couple of locks of hair out of his face and acquainted himself with his dearest enemy, reality.

Fuck reality.

-

The next time Gavin wanted to escape reality was weeks after that. A cold, wet day and what had his personal plastic prick done? Left him, soaking in the rain, waiting for him. Gavin muttered some swear words. He’d said to “stay there”. Stay there, his ass! He was going to look for that asshole and find out what he was doing.

Except he had literally no idea where he could be.

After work, they decided to check out the high street for an hour or two. Nothing special. But Nines needed new clothing - Gavin would not  _ stand _ one more day of him wearing a black shirt. At least he changed his t-shirts! They had been shopping for an hour now, dashing from shop to shop to hide from the rain. In reality, they weren’t shopping for clothes. They were hanging out. Bonding, though neither would admit it.

Something touched his shoulder, and he jumped. “Fuck!” Turning around, he was greeted by Nines.

“Hello, Gavin. I am back.” He could swear that that dick was smug. His face didn’t show much, but he’d seen enough to know.

“Oh, fuck you - where were you?!” he cried, pushing him lightly.

“I simply went to get this. I apologise it took me… well, it did only take five minutes, but even so, I apologise for keeping you waiting.” He held up a pretty, cat-patterned umbrella.

“Wha…” Gavin stood stunned for a moment. “Uh, well -” he stammered, “put it up!”

He nodded, smiling as he opened it and Gavin could see the pattern properly. Little cat heads covered the surface entirely.

Now,  _ this _ was Gavin’s kind of umbrella. He grinned. “Well… thanks, I guess. At least we’ll be dry, now,” he chuckled, blush creeping onto his face unconsciously.

“That was the idea.” Nines took a few steps forward to cover Gavin in the umbrella’s shade. He gazed directly into his eyes, shining and bright. More spirit than Gavin had ever seen in them. Not that he spent a  _ lot _ of time staring at Nines - just a little bit.

Gavin stepped forward too, faces barely inches apart. The rain pattered, the sound amplified by their covering. A symphony of sounds around them - the chatter of happy voices, music from nearby stores, and that wonderful, wonderful rain that had led them to be almost touching under this umbrella. Gavin inhaled, wanting to say something - but words escaped him.

Eventually, Nines did instead. “We should keep moving.”

Gavin hastily agreed, kicking himself for thinking that that moment ever was something. Part of him hoped it was, but another said that he was an idiot. Nines didn’t feel that way, he never would. He was just imagining himself in one of those cheesy rom-coms he used to watch.

Fuck his hopeful mind.

-

“Woo! Okay,  _ now _ this is getting fun.”

A few select friends had decided to hang out at Tina’s place and play some party games. Just Tina, Gavin, Chris, Connor, and Nines. Maybe they had gotten a little drunk, too - but that wasn’t the point. The point was, they had gone through her collection of retro Wii games (the old one, not even the Wii U). So they moved onto games like Twister - in which Gavin ended up flattening himself as close to the ground as possible so that Tina could bend over him and reach that one dot she needed. Then they got bored with that, so they tried charades. Connor was the absolute worst, and honestly, Gavin didn’t expect anything more.

Finally, they ended up with the game that Gavin  _ knew _ he was amazing at - spin the bottle. He had no fear. Absolutely none. He could kiss anyone in that room without a problem - hell, he and Tina were close enough they did it anyway.

Gavin’s turn came up. He spun the bottle without hesitation. He hoped to god it’d be Tina. Everyone watched in anticipation as it turned until it slowed down. It looked like it would stop just after Gavin - who happened to be Nines. His breathing sped up a little, stomach suddenly releasing butterflies.

What if he had to kiss Nines? He wouldn’t back down, no, but… He had imagined kissing Nines before. It was supposed to be romantic - not in a friend’s house like horny teenagers. They were supposed to meet lips delicately in the night - maybe New Year’s Eve? Decorations would glitter, lighting up their faces in a surreal fashion. It had to be  _ perfect _ . Not that he’d thought about it much. Because he hadn’t, just to clarify. He did  _ not _ spend every drunken weekend thinking about Nines while making out with a stranger. Anyway, really not the subject of conversation. Here they were, spinning a bottle to get a quick peck.

He waited for the bottle to stop. Oh, fuck, what would he do? Would he just do it quickly? Would he dare to go for longer, surrounded by these other people? Would he pull Nines, or just rely on him leaning down? Would Nines kiss back? What if he refused? Questions without answers rattled through his mind like balls in a pinball machine.

The bottle stopped, and…

“Oooh, Gavin and  _ Connor _ , sitting in a tree!” Tina sang teasingly. “K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”

Gavin gaped at the bottle. It had gone  _ past _ Nines.

Fuck that bottle.

-

“Ow… There - that - ow!” Gavin whined.

“Stay still. You will be fine,” Nines murmured, wiping a cloth gently over his wounds.

A fight near some brittle machinery had led to gashes on their legs and arms. Although Nines’s had healed up quite easily and quickly, Gavin’s would take a while. For now, care and attention would let them heal - which the android was quite happy to give.

“Yeah, easy for you to say, with your magic skin.” Gavin winced once more as a final stroke of the cloth tugged at a cut.

Nines tutted playfully. “Magical… actually, I quite like the sound of that,” he smiled. He grabbed the tube of antiseptic and began unscrewing the lid. “I suppose that would make you my familiar.”

“Familiar - they’re animals!” Gavin huffed. “That’s unreasonable. I am just as important as you - probably more,” he boasted, pouting.

“Aww… now, now,” Nines teased. Gavin rolled his eyes. He squirted a dollop of cream onto one of his slender fingers. “A witch’s familiar is very important. They bring joy, and often, very important tasks. And I do view you as rather  _ wild _ , to put it lightly.” He rubbed the cream into Gavin’s cut, mixing into a dirty orange colour with smears of red and white.

“Wild? What’s that supposed to fuckin’ mean? If you mean I’m amazing and majestic like a wolf, I guess so,” he chuckled. Neither man meant their words, but it was fun to pretend.

“I would compare you to a mutt, with the amount of barking and snarling you do. Horny, too.”

“Oh, shut up,” he scoffed. He didn’t admit how much that matched him. “Now, are we done here?”

“Almost, puppy,” he laughed.

Gavin listened to the laugh as if it was the last thing he’d ever hear. Nines didn’t laugh much, but when he did it was special. He made sure that every time he laughed, it was because of him. Something to do with stupid pride. He knew already that pride only hurts, it never helps, but he had to anyway. He savoured the nickname Nines had used - “puppy”. He’d favoured masculinity over cutesy pet names, preferring “handsome” or “sexy”. But he could get used to this… he could definitely get used to this.

He had  _ had _ boyfriends that used cute names, but they were few and far between. No-one wants to call a guy with a scar on his nose who looks like he hasn’t slept for days (and probably hasn’t) “cutie-pie”. But hey - if Nines saw him like that, who was he to refuse?

“Alright, we are all done,” he murmured, standing up.

Gavin snapped out of his trance, looking at Nines. “Really? You sure? There’s nothing… else you wanna do?”

“Not particularly. Your wounds are healed. We should return to work,” he deadpanned.

“Oh. Okay,” he nodded with a gulp, standing also. “Let’s go, then, Mr Witch,” he grinned hopefully.

Nines left the room without another word.

Fuck pet names.

-

New Year’s Eve, and there was a party for officers of the DPD. Gavin and Nines were invited.

Gavin was trying to stuff some more peanut M&Ms into his pockets while no-one was looking when Nines walked over. “It is almost time.”

“Mm… really? 2040 already, huh?” he commented. “Seems like last year went by way too fast.”

“I think it passed rather slowly. There were so many cases,” Nines reasoned.

“I’ve had  _ enough _ cases for one year. Seriously, past few weeks flew by. Can’t remember what we  _ did _ for any of them,” he scoffed. “I don’t know, I guess last year was better than the one before, though.”

When Gavin looked up at Nines, if he didn’t know better, he’d guess that there was a light teal blush on his face. “I joined the Detroit Police Department last year.”

“Yeah, you did. Maybe, just maybe, that had something to do with it,” Gavin hinted.

Okay - that was definitely a blush. A few minutes to go until 2040, and he had succeeded on his mission to make Nines blush. Truly an accomplishment. Nines self-consciously pinned back supposedly loose hairs to either side of his head. “Well, I am flattered.”

“Don’t mention it. If you weren’t there to annoy every waking second of my life, who would I have to piss off?” he joked.

“Mutual dislike is almost as good as friendship,” Nines agreed with a smile.

Gavin hoped to god it wasn’t actual dislike. Before he could finish panicking, a murmur arose in the crowd around them. 30 seconds until midnight. “Well, tincan. Want to go onto the balcony?”

“Of course, Gavin.”

Lights from all across the city lit up their faces, glittering and shining like diamonds. Gavin felt deja vu.

“Five!”

Nines stared him in the eye.

“Four!”

Gavin stepped close.

“Three!”

He smiled gently.

“Two!”

Nines smiled back.

“One!”

They held their gazes as the New Year came in.

And… nothing. No magical kiss. No embrace. Zip, zilch, zero, nada. Gavin was left there, waiting for something that didn’t come. His dream shattered in front of his very own eyes.

“...vin? Gavin? Are you alright?”

Fuck his heart.

-

And that’s how he ended up sitting on the roof, smoking and trying to work out his life on a freezing cold evening.

Why was his whole relationship with Nines failing? All of these chances - five, in total - with no luck. Maybe he just needed to… go for it. Or give up. That too. He would probably give up. He just needed to go on a proper date with someone else. He’d get over it! Hopefully.

“Gavin? Why are you out here? I was looking for you.”

Gavin turned around to see Nines. “Fuck off, okay? I don’t want to go through another fucking  _ moment _ with you.”

“Moment? What do you mean?” he asked. He tilted his head in an innocent way.

“I mean, stop fucking with my feelings, okay?" he snapped.

“I… how have I been hurting your feelings?” Nines’s expression softened.

“You - you keep” - he stood up - “playing with my fucking emotions, and it’s not cool!” He suppressed a tear. “You remember New Year’s Eve?!”

“What about it? You did seem awfully worried about something -”

“I wanted you to kiss me,” he shouted. Literally shouting from the rooftops that he wanted to kiss an android - not something he thought he’d ever do. “I stood there, waiting, while everyone else did their thing, and you - you just fucking stared.”

Snow began to gently fall from the cloudy sky. “I never meant to hurt -”

“What about when - when you were tending my wounds, and you called me  _ puppy _ ? I thought that meant something!” he whimpered. “Or spin the bottle - I wanted  _ you,  _ Nines! I wanted you! That day in the rain, and you bought that umbrella… All those months ago, that time you pinned me down in the closet - and god, I thought you were gonna have me there and then! And now - now what has that come to?” he asked. “What have I been hoping for?”

“I… you really feel that way about me?” he whispered.

“Yeah. Yeah, I think I used to. But I get it,” he smiled, no sentiment behind the teeth. “You don’t like me back, that’s fine.” He chuckled, almost hysterically. “How was I so stupid?!”

Nines rushed forward, grabbing his waist. “Please -”

“Get off me!” Gavin roared, pushing him away. “Please, don’t do this to me,” he whined. “I don’t want to feel like this anymore.” He blinked, snowflakes falling from his eyelashes.

“Gavin, I want you too,” he cried desperately. “I never knew you felt the same way!”

“Fuck you! I… I…” He had tears in his eyes, tension from months releasing all at once. “You… I…”

“Puppy,” Nines began with a sad smile. “Please. Let me show you my affection. Let me kiss you now, to make up for all the times I didn’t.”

Gavin stood there, speechless, as Nines walked towards him and brushed snow out of his hair. He cupped Gavin’s jaw in one hand, held his hips in the other, and kissed him. Gavin let Nines control the movement, giving in to the embrace. He wrapped his arms around the android’s waist as they kissed. Fires lit up in his heart, feeling like they might engulf him in flames at any moment. He didn’t open his eyes when he broke off to catch his breath, instead keeping them closed while he nudged his way back to Nines’s lips.

Eventually, after probably five minutes of passion, Nines pulled back. “You see?”

“Why didn’t you do this sooner?” Gavin whispered.

“I was blind to your efforts. But now I understand. And, if you wish, I would be happy to do this again as many times as you want.”

“How about at least three times a day for the next infinity?” Gavin laughed.

“I think I can just about fit that into my schedule,” Nines said. “But first, shall we head somewhere a little warmer, and catch up on the kisses we’ve missed?”

“That might take a while, considering how often I’ve thought about kissing you.”

“Then it takes a while,” Nines murmured, leaning back in for another kiss.

Fuck RK900.

Literally.

**Author's Note:**

> I may have referenced one of my favourite fics, "Fuck pride (pride only hurts, it never helps)" in there. I have not watched Pulp Fiction. Just... check the fanfic out. It's cool.
> 
> also i know that "it's raining and i'm staring into his eyes why isn't he kissing me yet" feeling. i have experienced it and it fucking hurts.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! <3


End file.
